The reason why no one wants to head Facebook or WhatsApp in India

The threat of personal liability might be deterring potential managerial talents from considering the job.

BENGALURU: The threat of personal liability in the event of social media platforms being misused appears to be deterring senior executives from taking up the traditionally coveted job of heading Facebook and WhatsApp in India.

Facebook’s last India MD Umang Bedi quit in October last year. It has been almost a year since, but the position remains unfilled. Facebook had at the time announced that Sandeep Bhushan, head of global marketing solutions in India, would be interim MD.

For any candidate, the prospects can be worrying. TOI reported last week that an interministerial committee, headed by home secretary Rajiv Gauba, had submitted a report recommending that India heads of global internet and social media giants should face criminal proceedings in case their platforms are used to spread fake news and other sinister campaigns that lead to lynching and riots.

Brian Wieser, senior analyst, advertising/media/internet at US-based equity research company Pivotal Research Group, told TOI that the threat of personal liability would deter managerial talent from considering a job, “especially if those individuals have other options, and especially with companies, which are in any way dependent on data covered by the law.”

Facebook’s vice-president for global marketing solutions David Fischer has made trips to India to interview candidates. TOI had reported in May that the candidates included Star India MD Sanjay Gupta, Tata Sky MD Harit Nagpal and Hotstar CEO Ajit Mohan. Four months since, Facebook has been unable to close the position. An email sent to Facebook on the matter did not elicit a response.

SENIOR ROLESFB has half a dozen open positions in India

Kavil Ramachandran, professor & executive director in Thomas Schmidheiny Centre for Family Enterprise, Indian School of Business (ISB) said, “The way Facebook has compromised data privacy expectations of users with the approval of its founder, Mark Zuckerberg has created panic among all at the senior levels, particularly in countries like India where the Facebook group is very vibrant but with very limited powers to influence the global policies of the company. This means that, if something goes wrong due to any action of the headquarters, country executives will be held responsible.”

Facebook has half a dozen open positions in India at senior roles, including the director of global sales organisation, director and head of partnerships, and vertical heads of ecommerce. The managing director position will be at the vice-president level. The latter is a first for India operations, signalling its growing importance. The two previous MDs for India and South Asia — Bedi and Kirthiga Reddy — were not accorded the VP title. The annual compensation, at $2 million (Rs 14 crore) and stock options, is also significantly higher than what was offered previously.

Earlier, the government sent notices to Facebook-owned WhatsApp, warning the company that it will be seen as an abettor in crimes such as mob lynching if it fails to control the spread of fake news.IT minister Ravi Shankar Prasad has warned internet companies that they cannot evade responsibility and accountability to ensure their platforms are not misused on a large-scale to spread incorrect facts projected as news and designed to instigate people to commit crime.